'Yes mean yes' policies endorse discriminatory enforcement, says lawyer

By Ashe Schow, Ashe Schow

Published December 20, 2015

Not only will students ignore new rules regarding how to have sex, but those rules also promote "discriminatory enforcement," according to author and lawyer Wendy Kaminer.

Kaminer, in a new op-ed for the Boson Globe, reminds readers that just two decades ago, the notion that students need to follow a strict question-and-answer session template for each sexual encounter was mocked by "Saturday Night Live."

"These days, no one's laughing," Kaminer wrote.

Kaminer is quick to point out that there is nothing wrong with teaching students about consent, but cautions against the "yes means yes" approach of imposing such teachings as "quasi-criminal laws on campus" that pose "serious risks of expulsion to students accused of not obtaining consent for every move or for acting on mistaken impressions of implied consent."